2014 Toyota Highlander
This year drew an ordinary 265 complaints for a Toyota Highlander — the model's median is 238. What they were about is the unusual part: 38.5% of them mention door, against 12.8% across the other years of this generation.
First year of a new generation. The Toyota Highlander was redesigned for 2014. A first year carries problems nobody has found yet, and they are found by the people who buy it — which is worth knowing before you become one of them.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 265 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 238 |
| Involving a crash | 10 |
| Involving a fire | 1 |
| Recalls | 5 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 5/5 |
| EPA combined | 21 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- door — 38.5% of this year's complaints, against 12.8% across the other years of this generation (3×). Owners wrote it as: door, lock, doors, button.
- lift — 22.6% of this year's complaints, against 8.7% across the other years of this generation (2.6×). Owners wrote it as: lift, rear lift, worked, turning off.
- stops — 12.1% of this year's complaints, against 3.4% across the other years of this generation (3.5×). Owners wrote it as: stops, pushing, vehicles may, last night.
Words owners used for the same problem are counted together, so a fault written four different ways is measured once. Grouped by which complaints they appear in, not by a list anyone wrote in advance.
What owners wrote
ISSUES WITH THE FRONT AND BACK DOORS NOT UNLOCKING. THE ISSUES HAVE RANGED FROM ALL DOORS UNLOCKED, BUT STICKING AND NOT DISENGAGING. I JUST HAD THE DOOR LOCK ACTUATOR REPLACED IN THE DRIVER'S SIDE BACK DOOR THIS WEEK. THE NEXT DAY THE PASSENGER SIDE FRONT DOO…
EVERY SINGLE DOOR LOCK ACTUATOR HAS FAILED IN THE VEHICLE CAUSING REMOTE LOCKING AND UNLOCKING TO NOT WORK. DOORS, AFTER FAILING, REQUIRED TO BE MANUALLY LOCKED OR UNLOCKED. THE DRIVER FRONT AND REAR FAILED ABOUT 39 MONTHS AFTER OWNING THE VEHICLE, THEN 3 MONT…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 18E107000 ELECTRICAL SYSTEM Fixed free of charge.
- 14V272000 ELECTRICAL SYSTEM Fixed free of charge.
- 14V576000 FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE Fixed free of charge.
- 14V274000 SEATS Fixed free of charge.
- 14V051000 SEAT BELTS Fixed free of charge.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Toyota Highlander was compared against its own history rather than against other cars, which removes popularity and age from the answer — a common car draws more complaints at equal reliability, and an older one has had longer to accumulate them. A year is flagged when it drew at least 2.5× this model's median and at least 50 complaints.
This is a fault record, not a review. Nobody files a federal complaint to say the car was fine, so it shows what tends to go wrong — not whether owners liked it, and not whether it is a good car.
Source: NHTSA complaints, recalls and investigations, retrieved . Look this vehicle up directly on NHTSA's site to check anything here.
Own a 2014 Toyota Highlander? What happened to yours?
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